Young Adult Volunteers (YAV)

October 1– Applications Open

January 1 -Round 1 – (All sites available, early placement)

March 1 – Round 2 – (Most sites available, final date to apply to international sites)

June 1 – Round 3 – (National sites only, limited spots available)

2016-2017 YAVs

Rebekah and Dia are available to visit your congregation to speak about their year’s experience as a Young Adult Volunteer – YAV. Please use the contact emails shown and offer them several dates from which to choose for speaking. You may also wish to view their blogs for more about their experiences.

The one message I have always taken away from Jesus’s teaching is Love. Love yourself, love your neighbors, love your enemies, love the earth and love God. And yet, when I look around in the world I see less of love and more of how power has corrupted the meaning of Love. How its been taken from a powerful toll of change, grace and peace and turned into a idea often associated with weakness. Showing Empathy, trying to understand someone else’s story, a story that might contradict or differ from the accepted story is hard. I had to confront this during my YAV year. I had to confront single sided stories about myself, about my housemates, my country and Korea. I had to really sit with and ponder what it means to Love, to be gifted with God’s love and how to in turn gift that to all around me, even when it was hard.

Faith. I don’t know what I’d do without it. My faith kept me going this year when nothing else did. That faith is tied to a number of different communities of people that I tend to call my family. People who know me well would say that I’m not a city girl. I’m drawn to the more rural aspects of life like mountains, grassy fields, jeans, tshirts, boots, hats, farms, and goats. Some of this can be taken with you when you move, but not quite all of it. So instead I carried my faith with me. Faith in God, relationships, and what was to come. If I’m being honest, this was the hardest year of my life. However, I have come to realize that life is a contradiction and this was possibly the easiest year of my life as well. But, how can that be?! Well, working with people every day who had less than me, (in more ways than just material possessions) it became extremely apparent that I am privileged. Now that I have seen the effects my privilege can have on others, my faith has been awakened and turned towards the injustices of the world around me. I may have completed this year of service, but that doesn’t mean it all goes away. It’s time to put my faith into further action within my own community. My reflections are endless, but here is a look into what I encountered this year…